...indeed, if he is a psychopath he is driving himself into a corner so that his only escape is death, and not his own.
Obviously, Putin has not chosen to consider what he is fighting for, if truly he has a 'Communist' conviction.
I ask, has he really had the opportunity to study such thought's origins? Clouded by the corruption of it in Russia by "Russians" (even before his birth) it has become a foil for the fear which plays out on both sides of a frontier divided by those who would prefer if such thinking was wasted so that the plunder of 'our' resources (Labour included) continues for those who benefit from such acts: the elite (read: ruling class) through capturing power in whatever form is represented.
...he is a man more attached to the past. This it appears to be his failing.
Someone who is looking forward looks beyond oil, (and what is Russia's leadership for alternatives to its power) for all our sake ending the dependence on oil itself at least; and this war is about "oil", isn't it? There lies the irony (or is this war a grand cabal's drama), because it hastens such objectives, not just in the EU; Putin's last hurrah (for the money he gets from oil), is a happy coincidence toward the world's objective, counter-intuitively, of saving the planet.
...if things do not continue as the are, the Problem is solved, he is famous and adored by the whole world along with Erdogan and Zelensky, or, living in infamy, perhaps facing a trial for War Crimes. "Winning" this war seems even less likely.